


Seven Soldiers of Victory

by Bagheera



Category: DCU (Comics), Smallville
Genre: Anti-Hero, M/M, Quests, Some Assembly Required, Team, season 5, season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:59:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bagheera/pseuds/Bagheera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the help of the Martian Manhunter, Lex Luthor assembles a team of superheroes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Soldiers of Victory

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2007. Set in S6 of Smallville, with a big dash of DCU. Many of these characters later appeared on the show, but Billy, Zatanna, Kyle, Diana and Vic are their DCU selves, whereas Ollie, Bart, Victor and Arthur are their SV incarnations. J'onn is somewhere in the middle. The title is borrowed from an existing comic, but the story has nothing to do with that except that Zatanna happens to be in both.

There's a stranger in Lex's office.

A stranger in the study in the mansion – that wouldn't surprise Lex very much. But here at LuthorCorp these invasions of his privacy happen much less regularly.

The stranger is a black man dressed in a leather coat. In one hand he holds a comic book – a Warrior Angel issue that must have been published since Lex stopped reading, which was quite some time ago, with the bald, purple-masked alien hero on the cover, fighting off monstrous alien invaders. Lex does not appreciate the irony.

On Lex's usually immaculate desk, there's a stack of oreo cookies and a lot of crumbs.

The man lowers the comic and glances calmly at Lex over the rim. Lex can't recall when a simple look has ever unnerved him this much.

He raises his chin in haughty defiance. Probably this is just some employee waiting to be fired. "Who are you?"

The man turns a page of the comic. The cover, under the gaudy red Warrior Angel logo, reads 'Stranger in a Strange Land'. 

"John Jones," the stranger answers and lowers the comic again.

A long pink tongue shoots out of his mouth, hits one of the cookies with the precision of a frog catching a fly, and pulls it into the stranger's mouth just as quickly. He chews with obvious relish, then swallows.

Perversely, this display of freakishness almost calms Lex down. It's a meteor mutant.

"Actually, no," John Jones says in his quiet rumble. "Although I hope you will keep your calm set of mind when I tell you that I am what you would call a Martian."

"A Martian," Lex echoes. Something moves in him, uncomfortably, and he realizes it's the urge to laugh.

"Yes," John Jones merely says, and turns another page. It's the last one, when he's done reading, he closes the comic and puts it down, neatly smoothing it with a flat hand.

But there's nothing to laugh about. Lex believes in aliens, and there's nothing funny about them. They're deadly, and deceiving, and must be stopped.

"When you were a boy, Mr Luthor, you wanted to meet a being from another planet," John Jones says.

Only then Lex understands that the man – the being behind his desk is reading his thoughts.

"You were born on Mars," he says, just for clarification. Aliens are deceiving liars, and they don't tell you this kind of thing. Probably Jones is just a very confused mutant. Still, with a mind-reader, Lex has to be careful.

A mind-reader could be best asset in this war that Lex has so far acquired. A mind-reader, if used judiciously, could tell him exactly what Clark is here for.

Lex should not be thinking this, but he can't stop. He's only keeping himself together by holding down his emotions with an iron grip, he has no hands free for his thoughts.

"I'm only just learning to close off my mind," Jones says, and this time he sounds a little strained, as if this saddens him. "It's a painful and unnatural process for my kind. But humans are used to screaming their thoughts at impenetrable walls, so I have the choice between being forced to listen and turning myself into a willing island." He focuses on Lex again and his voice becomes, if possible, even graver. "I was born on Mars, ten thousands of years ago. And no, I am not quite that old."

Lex's questions are being answered before he can put them to words. Either the answers are lies, or he is not expected to survive this encounter.He tried. He tried, and that is all that he can think of now, all that he can allow himself to think. He murdered and tortured and betrayed everything he believed in, and all that he has to show for it is this – he tried. And of course he failed, because Lex always fails in the end.

They'll invade Earth and Earth's sole line of defence will not leave this office.

"I have no intentions to cause you harm." Only a second passes, not enough for Lex to feel more than scorn and disbelief, before Jones goes on, "I'm not a Kryptonian."

"A Kryptonian?"

"That is the name of the species you fear so much, Mr Luthor."

"With good reason," Lex replies.

"I understand you well, Lex Luthor. I would do almost anything to be given the chance to return to my family, even if just to die at their side, on Mars, in my home. But my home is lost and I have every intention of protecting this planet and saving it from the fate of Mars. And so do you."

Anything, yes, to stop the invasion that Lex has known is coming since he encountered the aliens during the second meteor shower. Hurt the Kents. Make LuthorCorp a defence contractor. Turn humans into weapons and test subjects. Marry a girl he doesn't love just to take her away from Clark so Lex may use her when the time comes –

"I'm here to help you save the world, Mr Luthor," Jones says.

Lex has been looking for allies and weapons. The offer is very tempting indeed. But he has been burnt once already.

"How do I know you're not another Milton Fine?"

Behind Lex's desk, Jones starts to grow, and twist, and change his form, the clothes melting into his body, until the man in the leather coat is replaced by a green thing with inhumanly long limbs and a dragon's head, and eyes burning orange like coals. It appears to be lizard and insect and man all at the same time.

Lex stares in the face of truth and it stares right back at him. The truth doesn't blink, its eyes are lidless. 

Maybe Lex will die. But he has always wanted to meet a genuine alien.

An honest one.

"My name is J'onn J'onnz," a voice says in his head. "And I will answer any question you may have."

*

They've been in the office for hours. Lex has cancelled all his appointments. So far, the Martian has answered Lex's every question without fail. He has demonstrated his powers: shape-shifting, mind-reading, the ability to phase through solid objects, beams of fire that he can shoot through his eyes and now flight. At the question of whether he has a weakness, the Martian was quiet for a long time. Then he admitted to a paralyzing fear of fire.

"Humans have sent probes to Mars and yet we've never found any sign of life," Lex points out.

"That is because Mars is dead. I am its sole survivor."

"How did you survive?"

The Martian turns back into his human shape. Lex wonders if Clark is a shape-shifter, too.

"On Mars, I was… what you would call an artist. I had a wife and children. I was happy." This is the first time that Lex believes the Martian's words, because before he spoke with quiet authority, but now there's stark grief. "I would never have left on my own. But one day I was plucked from my home and pulled through a rip in space and time to a world very unlike Mars. Until then I had never left my planet. We Martians were not a space-faring people, but we knew there were other civilized people in the galaxy. This was a planet of ice, and the sun in their sky was red. The scientist whose experiment had brought me there locked me in his laboratory and asked me a great many questions, but eventually, he let me go back to Mars. When I arrived there after a long journey, though, Mars was a desert. Only the ghosts of the past live there anymore."

"So you came to Earth?"

John Jones tilts his head, in a gesture that Lex has come to understand as a headshake. "No. I returned to the distant planet of the scientist to ask him to return me to my people, even if I would have to share their fate. But the scientist's world had been plunged into war. He was busy trying to find a way to save his own wife and child, and I understood. Instead, I took refuge in a place called the Phantom Zone. A few months ago, I was released on Earth. I know now that Mars is forever lost. I can only go forward and protect what is left."

"How did you find me?" The most likely explanation is that Clark pointed him towards Lex, although Lex believes that Clark is entirely unaware of the fact that Lex is trying to prevent the invasion and Lex doesn't understand what the aliens would have to gain from trying to trick him into working with them. He's pretty sure they already have Lionel working for them, which would explain the sudden change of heart in his father after he switched bodies with Clark. They don't need another Luthor.

No, if Clark knew what Lex is trying to do, then Clark would kill him, just as he has killed other meteor mutants who stood in his way before.

So maybe it is true. Maybe Jones isn't working with Clark.

"I went looking for people willing and able to save themselves," Jones explains. "No man alone can protect his people. Luckily, you are not alone. There are others. We will find them all."

*

On the plane to Fawcett City, J'onn tries to teach Lex how to shield his mind.

Lex doesn't believe that it truly protects him from the alien's telepathy, but the exercises make him feel calm and focused like a long fencing match.

He's starting to feel tentatively optimistic about this.

*

"This is where we'll find an ally?" Lex asks doubtfully. They're in the most run-down part of the city, making their way through rubbish-littered back alleys. It's late in the afternoon, rush hour time, but these streets are deserted. Lex shouldn't walk around here without a bodyguard, but he trusts his security even less than he trusts the Martian.

J'onn pushes open an unlocked door that looks as if it might fall off its hinges. The house itself is empty, probably because its going to be torn down very soon. It doesn't look safe to enter, but the Martian walks in confidently, and Lex is too curious not to follow.

The truth is, for all that he has tried to come up with a way to stop the aliens, Lex's hands are still empty. The closest he has come to finding a powerful enough weapon was when he captured the speedster. So far, very few meteor mutants have agreed to work with Lex, and none of them are powerful enough to go against Clark, much less an army of Clark Kents.

The house has been inhabited by squatters. There are lumpy mattresses, a shopping cart full of rubbish and the remainders of a fire that J'onn skirts with great care. They mount the stairs. Graffiti is smeared on the crumbling walls and the stench of human excrements fills Lex's nose.On the top of the stairs they turn right. A used syringe crunches under Lex's expensive soles. Jones walks softly, as if treading on air.At the end of the corridor is another creaky door. The room behind it is almost friendly compared to the rest of the house. A broken window lets in clear sunlight, and the peeling wallpapers once bore a cheery flower pattern.

On a pile of blankets sits a little dark-haired boy. He can be no older than eight. His face is thin and pale, but clean, and his eyes are the color of the sky behind the broken window. Next to him, ordered neatly on the dirty floor, is a stack of newspapers with a small, ancient looking radio on top. He's reading a book that threatens to fall apart at the seams. The Wizard of Oz. When they enter, he lowers the book into his lap and glances up.

He looks at them without fear.

J'onn crouches down in front of the mattress. "Hello, Billy. My name is John Jones."

Billy lets the blankets slide down from his shoulders. He's wearing the rattiest red sweater Lex has ever seen. A savage anger fills Lex at the thought of all the people who must have looked the other way for this child to end up here. Whatever the Martian wants here, Lex is going to take the boy and put him into foster care.

"The wizard said you'd come," Billy says. His voice is clear as rain.

Jones glances over his shoulder up at Lex. Billy follows the gaze. The Martian looks back at him. "We are here to save the world."

Billy's gaze wavers between the two of them, and he wears a puzzled frown. Then the frown smoothes out into the childish, innocent confidence again.

He rises, dropping the book and the blankets. J'onn rises as well and takes a step back. Lex raises his brows.

Billy takes a deep breath.

"SHAZAM!" he yells, and his voice is followed by a thunderclap.

*

Billy Batson is Captain Marvel, and he has been given his powers by a wizard who lives in the Rock of Eternity. When he says the word 'Shazam', lighting turns him into a man larger and broader than Clark, and a bright red uniform with a white golden-trimmed cape.

At least that's what Billy says. Lex has seen it happen and he still doesn't quite believe it.

Right now, Billy Batson is sleeping curled into a seat in Lex's private jet, after he has eaten more than Lex has ever seen a child eat. He must have been starving. He wasn't afraid to go with two strangers and seemed only a bit intimidated by the luxury of the private jet.

"He has been chosen because he is pure of heart. He would not use his powers for personal gain," the Martian says quietly.

They are on the way to Edge City.

*

It's a circus show.

Lex has never been in a real circus before. He's seen certain kinds of performers at parties, of course, but he's never been to a circus where tigers are displayed in reeking cages and spun sugar is sold to wailing brats, where the audience is squeezed into a tall, stuffy tent and the first row is populated entirely by children who giggle and laugh even at the silliest jokes of the clowns.

Lex has found out that there's no point in pressuring the Martian to reveal what they're looking for. Whenever Lex's voice becomes threatening, the Martian's replies become very mild and patient, and he points out with the infuriating serenity of an Eastern Buddha that Lex will see it when they find it. So Lex is forced to follow him as they wander aimlessly between the circus tents and vendors and stare at depressing displays of animals in tiny cages. Bored and irritated, Lex distracts himself by buying Billy a soda and a caramel apple at one of the overpriced vendors.

Billy stares at the soda and the apple with big, disbelieving eyes. Lex fully expects him to refuse or take them without a proper thanks, just like Clark used to do, but then Billy smiles. "Thank you," he says politely and pops the soda can, pushing the straw in.

Lex notices the way the Martian is staring at the cookies, and buys a package of them as well.

It's been a long time since Lex has done something good that didn't come with a high price.

He doesn't buy anything for himself, but when he's sitting squeezed in between the Martian and Billy on a tiny hard chair without backrest, waiting for the show to start while the audience creates truly astounding levels of noise, Lex wishes he had a scotch.

There are acrobats, a whole family of them, flying through the air almost as gracefully as J'onn. Some of the children are as young as Billy and yet they master the jumps perfectly. There's a lion tamer in a silly orange cat costume and a 'talking' tiger. When the fire-breather enters the arena, J'onn shrinks in his seat, and Lex feels him quiver all through the performance.

And then there's the lady magician.

She wears a top hat on dark curls, a waist coat and fishnets together with a leotard. She's beautiful, too beautiful to appear in a cheap show like this, and her act is so good that it takes Lex a full ten minutes to grasp the fact that she's a real witch doing real magic. 

*

In the break, the Martian leads them to Zatanna Zatara's trailer. Above the doorway of the trailer that is shut with a velvet curtain, a sign proclaims 'Zatara' in colours that were once gaudy and now are fading and peeling. The date beneath the name is so old that she must have inherited a family business.

She sits on the stairs and smokes and Lex realizes that despite her professional behaviour in the arena, she can be no older than eighteen. When she sees them approach, she mutters something and the cigarette disappears. She puts on a smile and her top hat, but Lex can see the lines of exhaustion on her young face.

She has a surprisingly low voice, scratchy from smoke. "What can I do for you? An autograph? Most people want the Flying Graysons, you know."

Lex knows, because they had to fight their way through the throng of people trying to get an autograph from the acrobats before they could get out here. The acrobat family must be very popular.

"I preferred your act," he tells her, and something about her black curls and huge dark eyes forces a smile from him. He wasn't even going to try and charm her, it just happens. "You almost fooled me."

"You're a real wizard," Billy says admiringly. "Just like Shazam!"

There's a thunderclap and lightning hits Billy. As the dust clears, Captain Marvel grins at them sheepishly. "Oops."

Zatanna stares at them, then gives a throaty laugh.

"My name is John Jones," J'onn says. "And these men are Lex Luthor and Billy Batson. We are here to save the world."

*

So far, neither Billy nor Zatanna have asked for money or an explanation. J'onn's word and his charisma seem enough to make them leave everything behind. But then, neither Billy nor Zatanna are normal people, and they had little to loose.

They spend the night in a hotel, and Lex has new clothes brought for Billy and Zatanna. If his army must consist of children and stage magicians, then at least they will not wear rags and fishnets to war.

Captain Marvel's costume is tacky enough as it is.

*

Their next stop is New York.

After wandering the streets for a while and a crowded ride in an elevator, they knock at an apartment door on the fifth floor of a house in Brooklyn.

For a long time there's silence, then it's broken by a muffled curse and what sounds like someone hopping on one leg. The door is opened by a young man in boxer shorts who is still struggling to put on a faded green T-shirt. A head of dark hair emerges and for second, Lex is hit by the resemblance to Clark. But then it's gone, because this guy, although he is handsome, is bleary-eyed and he has stubble and everything about him screams of urban twenty-something.

"I'm not buying – "

J'onn silences him by changing his shape to his natural green form.

"Oh," the guy says with a blink. "Come in, then."

Lex is last to enter the chaotic apartment, and when he closes the door softly, the young man turns around, still looking dazed. "Coffee? You're not space villains, right?"

"No, Mr Rayner," J'onn says. "We are here to ask for assistance from the Green Lantern Corps."

Rayner looks startled. "Whoa, I didn't know I was that popular already. I'm just a Lantern in training."

From a cluttered hallway, they have progressed into a large, brightly lit studio. There's a mattress with a sleeping bag in one corner, and a cabinet sits on the floor next to it, with a cheap coffee machine on top. Nearly every inch of the floor is taken in either by dirty clothes, books, or art supplies. A desk is covered by a pile of sketches and pencils, and the air smells of paint and ink.

A closer look tells Lex's that Rayner draws comics.

"The Lanterns are known everywhere in the galaxy as a great force of good," J'onn says, as he navigates his big frame elegantly through the messy room. By now Lex knows when J'onn is getting manipulative.

"Yeah, look," Rayner blushes, and fidgets a little. "I haven't really figured this whole power ring stuff out yet. Maybe we should give the corps a call –"

"Earth needs you. If a Lantern ring has chosen you, you have the courage and willpower to help."

"I have a job with a deadline!"

Finally, this is a job for Lex Luthor. He takes a step closer. "Mr Rayner. Aliens will invade earth. If you don't help us, there won't be any deadline. If you do help us, however, I will make sure personally that you will be published by any company you want. How does that sound?"

"Um. How are you going to do that?"

Lex appears to intimidate Rayner more than the big green Martian in the room, and Lex likes that. "I'll buy the company."

"And you're sure you're not villains?"

Only after he has bought Rayner, Lex remembers that he doesn't even know yet what the man's power is.

*

Lex owns a company, and he should use the flight time to do his job, but his travel companions are very distracting.

Zatanna and Kyle Rayner are showing off with Billy as a delighted audience. It's a friendly competition, not an actual fight, they're just trying to prove whose power is the more entertaining one. Zatanna can make just about anything happen by saying things backwards – which is an absolutely ridiculous power and for Lex's peace of mind, he has to remind himself that her job description is 'illusionist'. Kyle Rayner, on the other hand, possesses an alien artefact, a so-called Green Lantern power ring, that is able to create green light constructs formed by his will-power and imagination.

Lex was angry at himself for trusting J'onn enough to hire Kyle without a second glance, but now that he has seen what the ring can do, his anger has cooled down. It's starting to look as if they have a chance against the invaders.

When Billy notices him watching, he asks, "What's your power, Mr Luthor?"

All of them turn towards him, but Kyle laughs and ruffles Billy's hair. "He's got money, kid. It's all the power you need."

*

Hub City makes the suicide slum in Metropolis look like suburbia.

On the way from the airport to the hotel, they have to stop thrice because Billy jumps out of the car to foil some crime, until Zatanna, who's itchy for a cigarette break and not allowed to smoke in the same taxi as J'onn, snaps at him to stop it.

The hotel is a crass contrast to the poverty-ridden city, but Lex knows that wherever there's great poverty, there's someone getting very rich because of it. He's glad that so far he hasn't had to stoop so low as to exploit the masses; the people he has harmed in his quest to stop the invasion have always been individuals, few enough yet that he knows their faces, if not always their names.

He calls Lana from the hotel, but she sounds tense. Probably she's with someone. Chloe maybe, or Clark. The enemy. Lana thinks he's on a business trip. Lex doesn't love her, but he wishes he could trust her enough to tell her that he's saving the world. When he hangs up, the others are ready to foray into the city in search of J'onn's next super-powered candidate.

"Who are we looking for?" Kyle asks.

"That is the question," J'onn evades. "He doesn't know yet."

*

They end up by a river that smells so toxic that Lex wouldn't be surprised if some Godzilla-like monster rose from its acid depths. Ahead of them there's a rusty suspension bridge, and in its shadow a group of noisy teenagers is in the process of putting a car on fire.

"That's dangerous," Billy says. "We need to stop them."

"Cars only ever explode on television," Kyle assures him, utterly unconcerned in the face of such vandalism.

"But they could hurt themselves!"

J'onn has stopped dead. "I can go no further."

Lex runs a hand over the back of his head in agitation. These people are just a bunch of neuroses. "Zatanna, would you please put out the fire?"

She smiles and pulls out her white gloves from inside the new leather jacket she's bought with Lex's money. As she walks over to the burning car, J'onn makes a strangled noise. Billy looks scared.

"Retaw!" she yells.

At least a cubic ton of water appears out of nowhere and splashes down on the car, putting the fire out and drenching the teenage vandals. They yell and run and stumble away as quickly as their drunk state allows them. Zatanna turns around and bows prettily. Kyle claps with a grin.

In that very moment, a figure like a scarecrow emerges from the shadows under the bridge. He's wearing a trench coat and a fedora, and under the fedora wild red hair sticks out in all directions. Despite the old-fashioned clothing, it's only a kid, younger than Clark, but he has the hollow face of a ghost and the feverish eyes of a nightmare.

"I've seen you coming. You're in my head," he yells. "You're looking for the spider… the spider…"

He sways and catches himself in the last moment, straightening up again. His knuckles are bloody, and half of his face is covered by swollen bruises.

"He's everywhere. In the air, he's talking to you. The spider crawls through the veins of the nation – nobody knows – "

A heavy hand settles on Lex's shoulder and squeezes. J'onn leans in close, he still looks shaken from the sight of the fire. "His name is Charles Victor Szasz, also known as Vic Sage. We need him."

Lex steps forward, past Zatanna. Szasz's raving doesn't intimdate him, he has seen worse in Belle Reve and Level 33.1 and probably even during his own misspent youth.

"Mr Szasz."

Szasz doesn't react. He raves on about vaccines and windmills and boy bands and queens and princesses.

"Victor," Lex says more forcefully.

That makes Szasz stop dead in his litany. His head snaps up, and his eyes fix on Lex. He has an ugly, brutal face, but those eyes, even through the obvious drug haze, are burning with intelligence. "Yes," he gasps. "Vic. Victory. To the victor go the spoils. Spoiled Victor – vector. You're the vector, Mister Victory."

And with that, he slumps straight into Lex's arms, out cold.

Lex lowers him onto the dirty ground. Zatanna and Kyle hurry closer, but Billy stays with J'onn. The boy looks scared.

"Shit," Kyle says. "What the hell's up with the guy?"

"Psychotropic drugs," Lex guesses. "And a higher IQ than is good for you in a place like this. Am I right?" he turns over his shoulder to J'onn. The Martian nods.

"Just what we needed," Zatanna sighs. "A genius junkie."

"Does he need a doctor?" Billy asks timidly.

"Probably." Lex pulls out his phone and calls a specialist. As he explains the case to Toby, Zatanna mutters something and Vic Sage, trench coat and fedora and all, turns into a little orange kitten that she picks up from the ground and carries in her arms.

Toby, once he's sobered up enough to get what Lex wants, tells him to fuck off and put Sage on cold turkey and see what happens. He won't get paid for that piece of shitty advice.

*

The kitten safely hidden inside Zatanna's leather jacket, they get past the reception and back to their rooms. They put sage on the couch in Lex's presidential suite. The kitten is mewing pitifully and stumbling around on insecure feet.

"Turn him back," Lex orders.

"Aw," says Kyle. "I like him that way."

Zatanna looks back and forth between the two of them, then apparently decides that Lex is the leader and waves her gloved hand at the kitten. "Eb namuh niaga."

With a puff of smoke, the kitten turns into Sage, his gangly limbs tangled in the trench coat, a curled up shivering mess the couch, the fedora clutched in trembling hands.

"Take a break," Lex tells his soldiers.

*

He's alone with Victor Sage for seven hours. At first Sage is still, then he starts pacing, raving at the walls, talking incessantly in English and other languages, only some of which Lex understands.

Once he's lucid for a few moment, and glances around curiously until he spots Lex. "You're Lex Luthor," he says, sounding surprised.

"Yes. I'm your new employer."

Sage laughs, then clutches his head. "I'm on acid," he tells Lex. Then he starts screaming.

Another time, he asks for a pen, and Lex, who is tired of trying to make sense of his talk, gives him a sharpie.

By the end of the seven hours, half of the wall is covered in writing. Sweeping arrows cross the whole picture, making connection where there are none, slowly closing in on the centre, like a spider's intricate web.

Victor Szasz is snoring on the couch and Lex is left staring at the wall.

The word in the centre says BRAINIAC.

*

The next morning, they all have breakfast together, and Sage, sober again, turns out to be a chipper eccentric. All of his tales involve either conspiracies or unnecessary violence, but mostly both. He doesn't eat anything that's red and refuses to part with his clothes, and when Lex tries to take a picture of the writings on the wall with his mobile, he freaks and raves on for a full five minutes about spy satellites and computer viruses, the gist of it being that mobile phones are the work of the devil.

"Do we really need him?" Lex asks J'onn.

J'onn is looking at the wall. "Yes."

Sage hasn't got to be convinced to come with them.

"We're saving the world," he says, as if it's obvious to everyone.

*

They cross the Atlantic, but not in a jet plane. Lex and Vic Sage are the only ones who can't fly, so they're carried in a bubble of green light created by Kyle's ring.

Two hours later, Lex knows more about the dangers of barcodes, the relation of the Bush family and the British royals to reptilian aliens and the connection between the Mossad, Nikola Tesla and the crash of Korean Air Flight KAL-007 than he will ever be able to purge his mind of.

They land, cloaked by Zatanna's magic, on Crete.

A couple of hours later, they leave the harbour of Heraklion on a yacht, heading out into the Sea of Crete. It's a sunny summer afternoon and the sun sparkles on the waves and once they leave behind the fishy smell of the harbour, the air smells only of salt and freedom. J'onn turns himself into a seagull, flying above their vessel on graceful white wings, and Zatanna conjures a bikini for herself to sunbathe. She's joined by Kyle not much later, while Vic excuses himself with seasickness and vanishes under deck.

Lex, who is the only one who has ever even been on a yacht, is left to steer it, following J'onn's direction. Billy sits next to him, chattering about how he wants to be a reporter for the radio.

It makes Lex think of Clark. Back when they were friends, Lex was only biding his time for Clark to grow up so Lex could take him to places like this.

Lex's mood has been good all day, and he tries to distract himself before he can slip back into depression.

"Where does the word Shazam come from?" he asks. Someone else saying it has no effect on Billy.

"It's the wizard's name," Billy says. "But actually it's a… uh, how do you call it when the first letters of words make up an abbreviation?"

"An acronym. Which words are they?"

"The names of the Greek gods who grant me their powers. S is for the wisdom of Solomon. H is for the strength of Hercules. A is for the stamina of Atlas. Z is for the power of Zeus. A is for the courage of Achilles –"

Lex closes his eyes. He feels a headache coming. "Achilles wasn't a god. Hercules was only a demigod. And Solomon isn't even Greek!"

So he ends up explaining Greek mythology to a kid who believes that all these gods and heroes are perfectly real until the sun goes down. And still they head east.

*

By morning, J'onn lands on the railing of the yacht and turns back into his human form. "We have reached our destination. We may venture no further. They don't welcome men on their island."

"They?" Lex asks suspiciously.

Vic Sage emerges from the depths of the yacht, looking hung-over and sick. "Amazons," he groans.

*

They wait for almost twelve hours, from dawn to dusk. As the sunset shimmers on the small waves, first one, then another set of sails emerges from the golden light. The wooden ships are long and sleek, and a single row of oars hangs inactive over the water on each side. They are ancient Greek triremes such as have not sailed these seas for centuries and they glide closer like phantoms of the past.

As they get closer, Lex is able to make out a figure in the bow of one of boats. It stands tall, and is surrounded by a fluttering white garment like a flag of peace.

After another few minutes, Lex sees that the figure is a woman with long dark hair, her chest covered by gleaming metal armour. The people sitting at the oars are all women, all dressed in light but war-like garments.

The triremes align themselves with the yacht on each side, and as they glide past, the dark-haired woman jumps from the bow of her boat onto the bow of the yacht with the grace of a panther. She bears a spear and a shield and when she straightens, she hits the shield with her spear once.

"Envoys from the world of man! I am Princess Diana of Themiscyra," she calls loudly. "Our seers have predicted your arrival."

It's the first time in his life that Lex hears actual Ancient Greek. He feels as if nothing can surprise him anymore.

None of his companions seem to understand her. They're merely staring at the Amazon with varying degrees of awe. Lex tries his best to puzzle out an answer as the Amazon stares imperiously at them.

"We have come here to seek your assistance," is what Lex hopes he says.

Diana of Themiscyra blinks, then laughs at him with merry blue eyes.

She's taller than Lex is and her bare shoulders and calves are impressively muscled. He has no doubt that this woman could overwhelm him in under three seconds, and for some reason, that makes her powerfully attractive. "Our seers did not predict that," she says. "Have you come in search of your lost soldiers?"

Lex tries to appear unsurprised. "Did they enter your territory?"

J'onn said that the Amazons would not tolerate men on their island. Probably the 'lost soldiers' are fishermen or tourists who stumbled on the island accidentally, or else it's a translation error. Lex doesn't really care about their fate, but Diana called herself a princess, so it might be prudent to make himself appear as authoritative as possible.

"Yes. They violated the sanctity of Paradise Island. They were to be executed for their crime, but the gods sent a vision to our seers and told them to bring them out to sea, where a Prince from the world of man on a sacred mission would meet us. Are you Alexander, the protector of man?"

That is the meaning of Lex's name in Greek, but it has become far more than a matter of etymology. Lex has made himself the protector of man, at all costs.

He nods. "I'm honoured to make your acquaintance." And strangely, he is. "My mission is to raise an army – not just to protect mankind, but all of humankind." He is sure that his words must sound stilted, but he only knows Ancient Greek through their poets and philosophers.

Princess Diana does not seem to mind. She gives him an answering nod. "Then we will give you back your soldiers, Alexander."

She raises an arm, and the metal bracelet on her wrist blinks in the sunset. It is answered by a call from one of the ships, and then a smaller boat is let into the water. Two large women sit at the oars, and an even larger, grim looking one stands in the rear, her copper hair like fire in the evening light. She carries a large sword and looms over the prisoners threateningly.

And then Lex laughs, a short, startled bark of laughter that he just can't hold back.

In front of the redheaded Amazon, bound in chains, sits Oliver Queen, wearing the unmistakable leather outfit of the Green Arrow. The next bench is shared by Victor Stone and Bart Allen, shackled to each other and also in chains. In front of them sits Arthur Curry and stares longingly at the sea.

And in the bow of the boat, bound by nothing but a thin golden rope, is Clark.

Lex steps closer to the railing, Diana at his side and waits as the boat crosses the space between the trireme and the yacht. As the Amazons stop rowing by the side of the yacht and Kyle throws down a rope for them, Clark glances up.

"Lex!" he shouts, utterly surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"How did you bind him?" Lex asks Diana.

"The Lasso of Truth is a gift from the gods," Diana replies. "It can bind any man and force him to submit to me. Whoever is bound by it may only speak the truth. Your young warrior struggled valiantly, though," she adds, as if she thinks Lex might be disappointed that Clark could be overwhelmed. "He is very powerful."

Lex allows himself a victorious smile. Clark is defeated, by a simple golden rope. He is forced to speak the truth, and Lex will make him reveal all of it.

"I'm saving the world from your invasion!" Lex calls back in English, because finally he can say it out loud and doesn't have to be afraid of what Clark might do when he realizes that he has been found out and that Lex knows about the impending invasion.

Clark's mouth falls open. "You what?"

"I've known about you for years, Clark! I know that you're one of them. Are you a sleeper agent? A scout?"

"What the hell are talking about, Luthor?" Oliver Queen demands angrily.

"Clark Kent is an alien," Lex reveals, because Queen might be an asshole, but he's still human. Eventually, they'll stand on the same side.

"Woah," Victor Stone says.

"That true, man?" Arthur Curry demands.

Clark looks increasingly panicked. "There's no invasion!"

"But there will be."

Clark closes his eyes. His face is glistening with sweat, and Lex can see him try to break free of the lasso. It doesn't work. Clark's dark head sags between his shoulders in defeat. When he opens his eyes again and looks up at Lex, he looks frightened.

Lex strains his ears to hear what he has to say, because finally it will be the truth.

Clark speaks softly, and only because everyone around them is silent Lex can hear him over the lapping of the waves. "I'm the last one, Lex. Krypton was destroyed. There aren't any survivors besides me."

Lex grips the railing. The gentle rocking of the yacht has suddenly become an earthquake to him.

He turns on J'onn. "You told me – "

The Martian steps towards Lex, his eyes gentle and compassionate. "I said I was here to help you save the world. I never said there would be an alien invasion." He glances down at Clark and speaks louder, so that they can all hear him.

"The truth is, neither Mars nor Krypton were destroyed from the outside. The enemy lay within. They destroyed themselves. I will not let the same happen to Earth. Therefore I have gathered all those willing and able to defend this planet, so that they will fight side by side and not amongst each other."

"Lex is a criminal!" Clark protests as he struggles against his bonds once more. "He's experimenting on people!"

One by one, Lex's followers turn towards him with questioning looks. Diana stares at all of them with a puzzled frown.

Lex raises his chin and stands straight.

"I did what I had to."

And he has nothing to be ashamed of.

And everything to regret.

"I don't understand," Billy says in a small voice.

Zatanna shrugs. "Seems like this was all just a wild goose chase."

From the other end of the yacht, Vic Sage clears his throat. "That's a big goose."

He points up at the evening sky and the black spaceship floating in it.

*

"Merciful Hera!" Diana exclaims. "What is that?"

Kyle Rayner raises his power ring, startling the Amazon even more when he produces a shield of green light.

"It's Fine's ship!" Clark yells. "Please, cut me loose! I'm the only one strong enough to fight it!"

Diana's shout of, "Don't you dare touch the Lasso of Truth!" is the last that can be heard before everyone around them breaks into wild noise and panic. Diana jumps over the railing and down into the boat to struggle with Clark. J'onn, Zatanna and Kyle Rayner fly towards the spaceship to attack it. The Amazons start throwing spears and shooting arrows at the spaceship.

Down in the boat, Arthur curry throws himself into the water, chains and all, and goes under. Bart Allen starts to vibrate and blur until he slides out of the chains and Diana has pushed Clark onto his back, a foot planted on his chest. He stares up at her livid face and says something too soft for Lex to make out. It looks like a plea.

She hesitates only for a moment, long enough to see how the spaceship defends itself with some kind of laser weapon. Kyle is trying to shield Zatanna and J'onn with the light of his power ring.

Her face hardening, Diana takes the lasso and pulls, and it loosens and falls off Clark. As soon as she steps aside, he is on his feet.

"No!" Lex shouts, but his voice is drowned by the noise of battle. Only Clark's eyes find him. For a moment they're completely inscrutable as he stares at Lex, alien as they never have been before, and Lex breathes out slowly, sure that he will die by Clark's hand. Instead Clark bends his knees and launches himself at the ship to attack it. Lex stares after him, feeling cold settle in his heart. In the sky, the battle is still going on, but Lex has already lost. He has been tilting at windmills all along, not a martyr but a fool. 

Billy stumbles into him. "What do I do?" the boy asks anxiously.

Lex shakes his head and turns away. He has no answers. Everything he has done was wrong.

Given no reply, Billy clenches his eyes shut and to Lex's horror shouts the name of the wizard.

A huge bolt of lightning hits the yacht and tears straight through it, ripping it apart in the middle.

The water is warm as Lex's body hits the waves, and it wraps around him welcomingly.

*

Vic Sage pulled him out of the water and onto one of the Amazon ships, forcing Lex to cough up the salt water he has swallowed. Lex was angry at him for saving him then, but now he merely feels numb.

They've won the fight, and everyone has returned to the trireme. Apparently the battle fought side by side was bonding experience enough for the Amazons, Queen's men and Lex's team to forget their difference and celebrate victory together.

It's night by now, and Lex is hiding away in dark rear of the ship, wishing the sound of laughter wasn't so loud even back there. He needs to be alone, and the wine in his ceramic amphora isn't strong enough.

A dark figure is making its way through the ship towards him. Lex dreads what is to come. For two years he has felt bitter enough to kill Clark and guilty enough to kill himself and only the need for balance has kept him from doing either. Now his balance is gone. It was a lie like everything else.

Clark stops a few feet away. It's too dark for Lex to make out anything but his silhouette, and a whiteness where his face is. Maybe the wine is also blurring his sight.

"You gathered all these people to fight me?" Clark asks awkwardly.

Lex wonders if the amphora would break if he hurled it at the mast. Probably he would miss.

Clark shifts his weight. "They're… good people."

They are. Lex doesn't doubt that they will continue to fight for… for truth and justice… god, he wishes it was the wine blurring his sight.

"J'onn says that you only ever had the best intentions…"

"You know what they say," Lex mutters.

"I'm not sure that makes the things you did okay, but… " Clark sighs. "It's just as much my fault, isn't it?"

Actually, Lex decides, he's glad that Clark isn't innocent anymore. He wouldn't be able to bear this if Clark were.

What will he do when he returns home? Divorce Lana, of course. Try to give her as much safety and comfort as money can bring. Shut down Level 33.1, or else turn it into a more humane facility. And then…

Lex isn't a hero anymore, and without his will to power, he doesn't have much will to live left. He might turn himself in to the law. It would be the most dignified thing to do.

Clark has come closer, and now he lowers himself gingerly onto the deck by Lex's side.

"The guy with the trench coat said Fine would be back," Clark tells him hesitantly. "I guess there'll always be more dangers to fight… you know, you could work together with us."

Lex stares at Clark. He still isn't sure who and what Clark truly is. But the offer is there, dangling between them. Lex takes the amphora and pours wine into his cup. He drinks, wishing it weren't so sweet.

"Seems you already have a billionaire."

Clark laughs uneasily. "Yeah, but Ollie doesn't speak Ancient Greek. We could need a translator down there. J'onn can talk with them, but he won't go near the torches."

"They seem to be getting along fine."

Clark looks towards the celebration, then lowers his eyes. "Yeah."

They fall silent, and Lex is too tired to feel much discomfort. Eventually Clark will leave and then he'll be alone with the wine again.

"I'm glad you're not evil, Lex."

Lex laughs mirthlessly. "Funny. I thought it just turned out that I am evil after all." He reaches for the amphora, but Clark takes it away.

"Getting drunk always makes you wallow in self-pity."

"Maybe that's what I want!"

Clark hurls the amphora into the sea. He always was a bad guest. Lex stares at him, his dark mood replaced by sudden anger. Of all the people on this ship Clark is the one person who can't forgive Lex because this is all just as much his fault and yet he's here, sanctimonious and belittling –

"You had enough," Clark says gently.

Lex punches him in the face, hard enough that he'd break his knuckles on Clark's invulnerable chin if Clark didn't go with the punch. Lex swallows a yell of pain as they topple over onto the deck. He jumps on Clark chest and punches him with his other fist, and this time he does make a sound, something between a snarl and a sob, horribly humiliating. Clark seizes both of his wrists and holds him still. His eyes gleam in the dark and his chest heaves between Lex's thighs. That and the pain in his hands and the way Clark licks his lips nervously and the sweet spiced wine all work together to betray Lex's mind.

The things he wants to say all sound childish and petulant. Yes, he hates Clark and he loves him, but no way in hell is he going to say that now.

He wriggles his hips and slides down Clark's body, their clothes sticky and stiff between them from dried seawater. When Clark's crotch comes into contact with Lex's erection, he surges up against it and lets go of Lex's wrists in shock.

Lex bends down, supporting himself on his elbows, and tangles both hands in Clark's hair. They hurt and yet he pulls tightly, leaning close until he can see Clark's face even in the dark. Clark is breathing shallowly, and his eyes are wide, half in fright and half in wonder.

"I'm also glad you're not evil," Lex whispers and captures his lower lip, licking the salt and bitterness of the sea from it, mixing it with the sourness of the wine. Together they taste of tears. Clark gasps under him, and his large hands find Lex's sides, touching him awkwardly.

Lex's own hands are shaking in Clark's hair, and where his back is exposed to the night air, the cold and dread of the past months still linger, but his kisses are sure and slow, and met more eagerly each time.


End file.
